How to Apply for a Loan on Lending Club

We walk through the entire Lending Club loan application process from start to finish including a how to video.

This is part of our semi-regular series where we take an in-depth look at the platform experience from the borrower side. A few months ago I took out a loan on Lending Club and I recorded the entire experience for Lend Academy readers. This was my second time applying for a loan on Lending Club, I first did this back in 2011 and you can read about that experience here.

Now, I didn’t actually need this loan from Lending Club, I just wanted to get a first hand look at their entire borrowing process. For investors I think it is important to have some understanding of the borrowing process, this is the core of what marketplace lending is all about and something few of us stop to consider. And for potential borrowers it is good to know how the process works before you apply for a loan.

When I was applying for this loan I created a screencast video of the process. This video walks you through the different screens and lets potential borrowers know what to expect. It runs just under six minutes and if you are looking to obtain a loan on Lending Club I highly recommend you watch the entire video.

Find Your Rate Without Entering Your Social Security Number

Most borrowers typically want to know two things: their interest rate and whether or not they have been approved. So, Lending Club makes it quite easy to find out those two pieces of information quickly. Lending Club will do a soft pull on your credit after you enter your name, address and income. No social security number is entered until you see whether you have been approved or not. If approved, you will see your interest rate and monthly payment and only after that do you have to enter in your social security number.

Once you have been approved and received your interest rate you are under no obligation to accept the terms that Lending Club offers to you. I chose a small amount of $2,500 and my loan was graded A2 with a 6.24%% interest rate (7.60% APR). Once you accept the loan terms Lending Club will do a hard pull on your credit and then you will see an inquiry for this loan on your credit report.

A couple of interesting points to note here. One, when I applied for a loan back in 2011 I was actually rejected by Lending Club. Back then I was self-employed and Lending Club made it very difficult to get a loan in those circumstances – I ended up getting a loan in my wife’s name so I could record the experience. Two, I noticed when applying for this loan that Lending Club offered me a lower rate 2-year loan option. I have never seen 2-year loans offered to investors so I thought that was interesting. Clearly, this is a special program Lending Club has recently created and my guess is that it is for one of their bank partners.

A Quick Turnaround on My Loan

When you have completed the online loan application process there is still more you need to do. Lending Club does verification on all their borrowers. Given that I had been an investor for 6+ years this verification was minimal. In fact all Lending Club did was to call me up to answer some questions to verify my identity.

Just like my my recent Prosper loan, my Lending Club loan was funded instantly by one investor – it obviously went to their whole loan platform. For those interested you can see my listing here.

Four Working Days from Loan Application to Money Received

The entire process was quick and easy. From the time I started the process until the money was in my bank account was just four working days. Here is a timeline with most of the steps involved:

Day 1 – Applied for a loan on Lendingclub.com
Day 2 – Loan is made available to investors
Day 2 – Loan is fully funded by one investor
Day 5 – Lending Club telephoned to do identity verification
Day 5 – Loan issued
Day 6 – Money appeared in my bank account

I did not have to provide any additional information to Lending Club beyond a phone call. I did have to verify my email address and bank account but that was basically it.

Overall, I was very happy with the entire process at Lending Club. Now, if you want to take out a loan from Lending Club then you can use this link (it is an affiliate link).

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Lend Academy has been bringing you all the news and information about peer to peer lending since 2010. Founded by Peter Renton, Lend Academy not only has the most active news site, but also the largest online forum and the first and most popular podcast in the industry.

The Lend Academy team loves peer to peer lending and our staff have all invested their own personal money in one or more of the platforms. Lend Academy Media is part of Cardinal Rose Group which also owns LendIt, the leading industry conference, and has a majority interest in NSR Invest.